(This interview was taken by Randy Walker)
The following is a question and answer session with Rene Stauffer, the author of The Roger Federer Story: Quest For Perfection, the first US published biography of Roger Federer. Federer won his record fourth straight US Open men’s singles title Sunday, defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the championship match. The title also marked Federer’s 12th career Grand Slam singles title, tying him with Roy Emerson for No. 2 all-time for most Grand Slam men’s singles finals, two shy of Pete Sampras’ 14 Grand Slam singles titles.
Q: What are your thoughts and impressions of Roger’s win at the U.S. Open?
STAUFFER: Roger did not play his best tennis overall. It was more hard work than magic, but certainly his hunger and desire to win were as big as ever. That's what carried him through all those difficult moments in the semis and final. I'd say he won due to this desire, his mental strength and toughness as well as his ability to stay calm and positive, even facing set point after set point. He also won based on his experience in all these major finals and his ability to change his game if things did not work as well as he wished.
Q: How does Roger’s four straight U.S. Open titles compare to his five straight at Wimbledon? Is this more significant of an achievement since the hard courts of the U.S. Open are more of an equalizing surface and there are more players who have the ability to beat him on hard courts than grass courts?
STAUFFER: Good question. Actually Roger’s four US titles in a row are more meaningful and representative of his overall strength, because hard courts are a fair surface for everybody and there is much more competition than on grass, which doesn’t suit a lot of players well. But since Wimbledon was always closer to Roger than Flushing, even as a kid, his five Wimbledon titles mean more to him, and having tied Borg’s record this year, certainly stands above his fourth U.S. title and was the defining moment of 2007.
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